1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to landing gear and more particularly to a landing gear or landing mechanism for a micro air-vehicle (MAV) or hovercraft that allows vehicles to land on sloped or uneven surfaces while maintaining the vertical orientation of the hovercraft body.
2. Background Art
Presently there are no solutions to the problem of landing a hovercraft on a sloped surface. This problem is particularly critical for a hovercraft due to the operation of the ducted fan assembly, which needs to be in a substantially vertical orientation to operate correctly.
Presently, spring loaded vertical legs are being used as landing gear for aircraft such as the lunar landing module (LLM). The LLM vertical legs are spring loaded so as they compress they are applying torque to the vehicle, which is attempting to maintain a true vertical orientation.
Another prior art method for providing a landing gear for an aircraft on uneven surfaces is a “wineglass” base that articulated from a single ball joint. The ball joint “wineglass” mechanism needs some form of locking mechanism at the ball joint to maintain stability and a complex mechanism to maintain the vertical orientation of the ducted fan assembly.
Further, the prior art approaches add an extraordinary amount of weight to the hovercraft, and due to the complexity of the devices, are subject to failure.